Ritsu didn't waste any time, though the teacher of "College Algebra" was strictly against passing notes or text messaging in class, she knew that a decent text conversation could be carried out if she and Mugi were careful. Now, Mugi wasn't very careful, definitely not the stealthy type by make, but Ritsu was practically a master at it at this point in her life. She had been sneaking stuff past teachers since second grade, when she could write a full coherent sentence to put on a note.

So even though Mugi was terrible, Ritsu more than made up for it. The sneaky brunette didn't miss a beat; she scribbled down a message on a small piece of paper, and folded it up so masterfully it looked like nothing more than a scrap. She flicked it, and it landed right in front of Tsumugi, with an amazing precision. She didn't really need to be that good to beat nearly any teacher, but if she had learned in anything in all of her classes... well... passing notes was it.

It took Mugi a second to realize the scrap Ritsu had flicked at her was actually a note, but it didn't take long before she had unfolded it. Ritsu's print was tiny, barely even legible –but that wasn't that out of the ordinary-, but it was just enough for Mugi to be able to read it. "You'll never guess what happened!"

Mugi quickly scribbled beneath it, folded it up the best she could, and passed it back... less than discreetly. Class had just started, and the teacher was a bit distracted with taking roll and writing notes on the board. Ritsu quickly unfolded it and read Mugi's clearly legible message. "What?"

No big surprise there, though she'd wished Mugi had actually put forth some effort towards guessing... but oh well. She returned the note with little delay, flicking back in perfect folding form onto Mugi's desk.

The blond looked curiously at it with her deep blue eyes, careful to unfold it a second time, not wanting to tear the paper. Ritsu was excited, as Mugi watched her write her eyes were ablaze with passion, her hands trembling with unspoken excitement. She looked down at the note. "Mio's falling in love!"

Now... she had to look at that one for second. Then she had to remember who she was talking to. Then she had to look at it... again. She didn't really know what to make of that at first; it was kind of a strange thing to just randomly say, especially after what Mio looked like yesterday after their "date". Like she had seen a ghost basically... so where had this suddenly come from?

Now, Mugi knew that that had to be the extremely generalized version of the story. But obviously, Ritsu didn't have the space or the patience to tell the full version of the story on a small scrap of paper in the middle of the Algebra class she was getting a C in. But still, even that short sentence was a little surprising, despite the back story behind it... but then again, it was Ritsu.

So in an effort to realize the situation, Mugi returned the note, with a small message that said, "What happened?" before passing it back, barely averting the teacher's watchful gaze. Ritsu quickly snatched the note, careful not to get caught, and read Mugi's message. Without delay, she began scribbling down the events from earlier that day, shaking with excitement as she riddled the paper with her chicken-scratch.

Mugi had a little time to think, and as she thought through what Ritsu had written, she actually realized something. She liked it when Ritsu was chasing after Mio... it meant that she got to help out with stuff. Ritsu had been talking with her a lot recently, phone calls, text messages... and Mugi really liked getting the attention. It broke the aura monotony that her room and household tended to have. And what would happen after Mio and Ritsu hooked up? Would it be back to how it was before? Or would it be even more... lonely?

She certainly hoped not, and she took Sawako's words to heart. She still admired the sensei with a deep passion, and she trusted that Sawako was right about karma. After all, it was a widely accepted thought on life. Not that many people could be wrong about something right? Of course not!

She brightened up again; she hated that stupid lonely feeling that would occasionally creep up on her. Besides, this wasn't about her, Mio and Ritsu were her priority right now. Despite her small, minor inhibitions, she had committed to this, and if it didn't work out, she would feel terrible. Ritsu cared so much about this, and if Mio actually was "falling in love", then she had done a good job.

She noticed the small piece of paper fly by her eyes and land on her desk, then watched Ritsu as she carefully turned back towards the front of the class. Mugi took a deep breath, before carefully unfolding the note. She was always worried she would rip these, especially the way Ritsu folded them. She carefully undid the folds and looked at the long, disjointed message scratched onto the paper.

Though it was hard to make out, Mugi got the gist of it. Though she was guilty, she was glad it wasn't as drastic as Ritsu made it seem. Mio was just acting strange again, from what Mugi gathered out of the almost cryptic note, and there was nothing out of the ordinary about that. Mio was acting a bit strange, and the hug had been totally out of the blue as far as Tsumugi was concerned, but she didn't gather anything else.

If anything, Mio was getting gutsier. On Thursday, she wouldn't have even touched Ritsu, and almost had a heart attack when Ritsu inadvertently grabbed her hand in Biology class. Ritsu however, she'd been unconscious and hadn't been able to notice that. Of course, Ritsu knew that Mio was acting a little more differently than she had been over the last five days, and Mugi was still working on figuring it out.

Mio actually pulling Ritsu into a hug was quite the surprise for the blond, and now Mio had been so daring as to not only sit next to Ritsu but also do something to her arm? Ritsu had said "stroking" in her note, but Mugi took that with a boulder of salt. After all, Ritsu often saw things through rose-colored glasses, where everything was better than it actually was. Mugi knew that Mio wouldn't have stroked Ritsu, especially not the arm. What a weird place to stroke someone who's sleeping!

She knew Mio was far more romantic than that, you don't write such beautiful music and not have a clue on how to be sensual. It just didn't mix! Besides, that would have been a huge step above a hug. A hug is a thing that some girls did to everyone, like Yui, so they weren't really considered a sensual part of every day society. It was practically common place now a days. But stroking? You don't stroke a stranger, you may hug on if you're really happy, but you definitely don't stroke someone you've never met... it may make them extraordinarily uncomfortable.

No, stroking was not something she could see Mio doing, not after how afraid of touching Ritsu she was not a few days ago. Even if Mio had fallen in love with Ritsu completely, Ritsu had given no inclination, at least not visibly, that she liked Mio back. No stuttering, no blushing, no fear... basically nothing out of the ordinary. And Mio wouldn't just come on to someone like that so blatantly, and definitely not in such a sensual way. Not a chance.

So Mugi wrote Ritsu's overly optimistic comment off as just that, "overly optimistic". But... she might have been on to something. After all, she did believe Ritsu that Mio had been touching her arm, and apparently pulled away when Ritsu woke up, with quite the blush on her face. Though Ritsu didn't specify the extent of the contact, aside from "stroked", Mugi knew that it was a huge step for Mio.

Heck, sitting next to Ritsu rather than her normal place in class was a big step to begin with. But actually gathering the courage to reach over and wake up Ritsu by contacting her arm... that was just another huge step. Now Mugi was left with a question. She wrote a small note back to Ritsu, "Just stay on course. Act normal, compliment her casually, be yourself, and we'll see what she does." And with that, Mugi turned to the front of the class to do some thinking.

Her main question to ask... does Mio's gutsiness mean she's realizing she's not interested...? Or does it mean she's realized she is?

(*SCENE BREAK*)

Lunch rolled around without a hitch, though Mio did some serious thinking in her second and third hours. She still wasn't entirely sure that she "liked" Ritsu, though she knew that there was definitely something up. She didn't really know if it was a sexual attraction or not, but she couldn't help but think about how great Ritsu's arm felt in her hand... how soft Ritsu's skin was, how firm yet feminine her muscles were, and how the warmth from her seemed to resonate through Mio's entirely body, from her head down to her toes.

There was no denying it, whenever she came in contact with Ritsu, it felt like her skeleton was on fire with a warm, comfortable, awkward blaze. She liked it; there was no denying that simple fact. When she and Ritsu touched, it was a whole new feeling to her, and although it felt a little awkward, it was worth it. There was nothing wrong with it, it comforted Mio as well, and although it made her blush to the point of near nosebleed, it was a feeling that she adored.

But, only for a short time... then it became just a little too much for her to bear. But, it was getting easier and easier to hold on to the feeling for a longer time, and it started to feel more and more normal.

She also knew that she wouldn't get that feeling in her body from any other person. She could think about when Yui had held her hands, or hugged her, and nothing came of it. Nor when she thought about when Mugi had hugged her for comfort, nothing came to mind at all... no flames in her skeleton, no warmth anywhere on her body. But the moment she thought about Ritsu, when they had held hands or hugged, or even that day... the warmth boiled up inside her almost instantly.

And even more, every time she thought about holding onto Ritsu's arm, she could feel her hand tingling where it had grasped Ritsu's arm. Mio didn't realize it, but every time she focused on that one incident, a small blush came on her face, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

Mio thought about it through those two hours, she really didn't need to worry about anything else since they were fairly easy classes, and she could afford another brain storming day. This seemed far more important anyways. At the end, once she had enough time to think about the hug, how firm Ritsu's arm was, and that warm feeling in her skeleton... she realized that "liking" Ritsu wasn't a bad explanation at all. A bit scary yes, she was worried about what others might think of it, especially Ritsu if she found out... but it was a strong possibility.

After all, she had never gotten that feeling from anything else... but in the end, she couldn't even say she had ever had a crush. Not in grade school, not one that she could recognize anyways. No guys that caught her eye. No one that made her nervous enough to look down at her feet and act completely different...

Except that was different now. And with everything Mio knew she was feeling, maybe she actually did have her first crush.

(*SCENE BREAK*)

Lunch however wasn't as eventful for some as others, particularly Yui, who would have to be retaking her test. However, she as she dashed into the room, she didn't have a grimace of confusion on her face, nor a look of dread for losing her lunch to the dreaded test... no, she had a smile from ear to ear. Azusa followed in suit, right behind her "senpai", though in Literature class, it might have been the other way around considering how much more knowledgeable Azusa was in comparison.

Yui was all smiles for two reasons. The first was that she and Azusa were reunited over the excruciatingly long period of just over one day. They had gotten to talk for a little bit during their second hour together, but Yui took the surprising initiative to actually study. Azusa had mentioned something about "not getting to see her in class any more", and it set off alarm bells in Yui's scatter brained mind. She turned straight to her book and began studying it, not wanting to be ejected from the class, and separated from her Azu-nyan. That would ruin the rest of her third year!

Well... probably not, she would still get to see Azusa and all, but who cared about that? The point in her mind was, she wanted to see Azusa, especially for one of her more difficult and of course, boring classes. Her Azu-nyan always seemed to make time pass faster in that class, and made all of the bad grades and lectures a lot lighter on Yui's conscience, since she knew that she had something to fall back on.

The second reason she was smiling is because she was ready for this stupid test. She was nervous of course, but she had never studied harder on a certain subject than she had on that damn book, and although the millennia old text still made little to no sense in terms of plot and character development, Yui could probably recite the first chapter from memory by that point. She couldn't have been more ready to give her two cents in the form of a multiple choice Scantron.

Azusa wasn't as excited to be missing her lunch with whichever group of friends was available, but she was happy to see that Yui was excited. Though she wasn't expecting a perfect score from Yui, it would have been almost an impossibility considering the teacher had never given a hundred percent to anyone in their class, she did know Yui was confident. And confidence was the half the battle.

The teacher wasn't extremely excited to see Yui in her classroom, she wasn't too fond of the space cadet who would often spend more time distracting other promising students than actually studying, but she figured nothing could really go wrong with giving the test. After all, if Yui failed, Yui would be out of her hair. On the other hand, if Yui passed, then she would have a reason to badger the girl to pay more attention in class.

Azusa jumped slightly as she felt two arms wrap around her stomach and hold her tight, but it only took a second to realize what had caused it. "Good luck hug Azu-nyan!" Yui said quickly, before darting to the other side of the room towards her normal desk, leaving Azusa slightly dazed. She composed herself quickly, and turned towards her own desk.

She and a very excited Yui took a seat down at their desks, and were handed the retake copies. Azusa wasn't worried, if she got a higher score on this, it might raise her grade a percent or two, and if she did worse, the retake would be disregarded. She was more worried about Yui... because although she hadn't obsessed nearly as much about not seeing Yui, she still didn't want to be left alone in the class. It was mostly third years, and a friend was always nice to have.

She occasionally scribbled in an answer down on the Scantron paper, finding the retake just as difficult as the original. The problems flip-lopped themselves, which made it even worse... but this was a university-prep class, and it was designed as such. She imagined that that was exactly the kind of test they gave at the higher level education, so she trucked on through it.

It wasn't easy to take for her either, she found herself constantly getting distracted by other things. Mostly, it was the sound of tapping on Yui's desk, but it wasn't uncommon for a guitar play to tap subconsciously. Yui didn't do it often, usually only when she was thinking really intently on something... and Azusa took that as a good thing. Yui should be thinking about this test, it meant their future in that class together.

However, time seemed to drag on as lunch period passed, every second taking longer than the last, and each answer getting harder and harder to come up with. Azusa actually felt a headache coming on from the stress of trying to worry about not only improving her own score, but the far greater stress of wondering how Yui would do. She unwillingly found herself day dreaming about what life in that class might be like with her Yui-senpai to lighten her day up and brighten the mood of the room, enough to make it bearable.

She thought about the moon-princess as she answered one of the last ten questions on the test, but her mind shot straight back to what it would be like if Yui was gone and all the other intimidating seniors were the only ones left, no friends, just the intimidation of older people with more adapted skill sets.

She filled in another of the last five, thinking about the use of conflict to increase interest in the story, and then her mind shifted again. This time, she thought about how dull the room would be without Yui's smile or carefree attitude. How boring her class might be. How intimating the teacher might get once she lost her only friend and how much longer "silent reading" time would be without someone there to talk to.

As she filled in the last blank, thinking about how this book affected society at the time it was written, her mind diverted to thinking about how vacant the classroom would be with Yui there. How quiet it would be and how different it would feel without her Yui-senpai to pull her into a hug every now and then.

She didn't know why, but her mind was already set on the idea that Yui was as good as gone from the class. The test she had just completed was nothing short of difficult, definitely felt like a college level class to her. She began reviewing the answers, wondering what Yui might have answered on each of them based on their study session together on Saturday. There were so many things on here that they didn't even cover, so many things that the teacher asked that barely even tied in with the book. Such foreign, astronomic questions it was almost dismal.

The retake was even harder than the first one, probably because the teacher thought if she gave her students an extra weekend to study, she could make the test harder ten fold. Azusa looked over her answers, though she wasn't even thinking about the damn test. She didn't want to say good-bye to her senpai. It was only for one class, sure, but this was the only class she had without Jun or Ui, and it was by far the scariest! She needed Yui's bright smile, her warm hugs, her care-free attitude, and her light-heartedness. She needed a friend, someone to rely on when stress was high. She needed a companion in the mostly third year class. She needed someone to lean on.

She quickly brushed away a tear from her cheek, her mind having already decided that Yui was going to be leaving her class; all that studying had been for nothing. Well... almost nothing. Azusa did remember that afternoon fondly. But that wasn't the point.

However, her morbid thought patterns quickly shattered as she heard a sharp gasp from her teacher's desk. She looked over, and saw Yui standing there, her face vacant of expression, and the teacher staring at her with an equally blank face. "Hirasawa-Kun..." She muttered slightly, before looking back the test. "How on Earth...?"

Yui looked at her, same devoid expression, and shrugged. "An eighty-four percent?" The teacher continued, and upon closer inspection, Azusa realized the look of "expressionlessness" was actually one of "flabbergastedness". "How on Earth did you get this grade? Did you cheat?"

Yui looked at her for just a second, before shaking her head. "N-no! I just studied really hard with Azu-nyan! I promise!" Naturally, the teacher had no idea who the heck that was, but Yui motioned for Azusa. Azusa's expression had improved greatly, from morbid to almost euphoric. She didn't care about her own test! She had heard Yui's retake grade, and that meant that morbidity had no more place in her mind. Yui was staying, and she had gotten a really decent grade.

"Hmm... alright then." The teacher said, rolling her eyes in obvious disbelief. But that was it, she handed Yui her test, and Yui's eyes lit up with pride as she took it and went back to her desk. The teacher took off to lunch as soon as she could, leaving Azusa and Yui with the command to, "close to door behind you when you leave".

The next thing Yui knew, two arms had wrapped themselves tightly around her waist from behind. Really tightly. Maybe a little too tightly! She tugged at them slightly, it was hard to relish in a hug when you couldn't breathe, and much more difficult when your ribs were being crushed. But the girl who had pulled her into that death grip had no intention of breaking that hug. Not yet.

Not after what she had been through.

"Azu-nyan..." Yui cooed once she had enough air to do so. Azusa had clung herself tightly to Yui, she couldn't even describe the relief she felt knowing that Yui wouldn't be getting kicked out of the class. She hadn't even bothered to turn in her own retake, which had been done for quite some time; she was just far too elated. She pulled Yui into the tightest hug she possibly could the moment their teacher left, practically in tears.

She wanted to say something in reply, but she couldn't think of anything she could say to Yui. She was practically shaking with euphoria and relief; she couldn't even attempt to put those feelings into words. Instead, she nuzzled her head into Yui's back, hugging just a little tighter before relaxing a bit, to give her senpai room to breathe.

Yui was happy as well, but Azusa was still thoroughly attached to her back, and there was no way to return the hug with Azusa behind her. It would have been awkward to reach behind her and grab hold of whatever she could find; it wouldn't have felt nearly as lovely either. But... she couldn't just deal with being hugged and not hugging back. It just didn't work that way! She needed to give attention as much as she needed to give it.

So, using the small amount of space Azusa had left for her in her death grip of a hug, she slowly began to turn around. It was quite the task, and it would have been impossible if she was sitting down, but she managed to slightly contort herself so she could turn to face Azusa.

She didn't waste time either. The moment she was turned completely, she pulled Azusa into the tightest hug she could as well, though Azusa was still wrapped firmly around her midsection. So she grabbed onto whatever she found first, and pulled it tightly against her body.

The overall result? Azusa's head had been the only thing that Yui was able to grab onto, and when Yui hugged it into her, she pulled up slightly. Azusa was the first to react to it, when she realized that her head was not in Yui's stomach or back any more, it was slightly higher. In a softer place. A deep blush washed over her face, realizing where her head actually was.

Yui however, showed no signs of breaking the hug. None whatsoever, she was simply enjoying the contact, she didn't care where it was. That was, until she felt Azusa struggling. She thought about it for a second, before realizing that Azusa was no longer hugging, but rather trying to relinquish herself from Yui's grasp.

She let go of Azusa's head, and the younger girl shot back. Yui looked at her curiously, before realizing that Azusa was blushing deeply, and pinching her nose, holding her head straight up to the sky. She didn't get... had she deprived her Azu-nyan of oxygen? Was that why she was so red and her nose was bleeding?

Yui continued to contemplate while Azusa recuperated from the experience, and put her test on the teacher's desk. Azusa has finally stopped her nose bleed, but the blush stayed smeared on her face as the two left the classroom. Azusa knew that Yui didn't know what had happened, she could tell by the thoughtful expression on Yui's face and the remarkable silence around them as they walked. But maybe that was for the best. Maybe, it meant that Yui would pull her into another hug just like that. Maybe next time, it would last longer. Maybe next time, she could kiss her on the forehead like that Saturday. Or maybe, just maybe, a little lower. And maybe this time, Azusa would have the courage to thank her for it.

(*SCENE BREAK*)

A little more Azusa and Yui in this one, and a well deserved ending for them. I always knew that these two would move a little quicker than the others, if only by a little bit, and there is the evidence of it. Now I just need them to break the fourth wall.

If you get a chance, feel free to review!

I have no idea whats up with the line breaks on FF, it makes the chapter seem really disjointed. There in there, but FF isn't registering them. Please bear with me, there are three scene changes, but fanfiction isn't showing where I put the line breaks. I guess we'll just have to use our imagination. Sorry about that. For now, they are put down as (*SCENE BREAK*)'s. Sorry for this inconvenience!

Thanks for reading, another new chapter coming next week!